AirKenya “extra seats will be charged” rule
Oct 20, 2023, 6:18 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2013
Posts: 637
AirKenya “extra seats will be charged” rule
Hi all -
so I booked an Air Kenya flight a few months ago for my companion and I.
The rules says “WILL OPERATE WITH A MINIMUM OF FOUR PASSENGERS ON ANY AIRSTRIP, IF LESS THAN FOUR PAX BOOKED,EXTRA SEATS WILL BE CHARGEDWell, sure enough I got an email last week (2 weeks before flight) telling me we were the only people booked and “options would be coming.”
A few convoluted emails later, we are nowhere, but they say they will get back to us 4 days before the flight.
My position now is that I just want a full refund so I can book an alternate flight that is confirmed. Once I asked for that, they suddenly stopped responding to my emails.
I would very much like to get this in order as the alternate flights are filling up.
does anyone know how this works?
I really don’t like the idea of an automatic charge for extra seats that we are not flying (at what fare? When do they charge them?) and as such I have put a freeze on my cc.
any insights?
so I booked an Air Kenya flight a few months ago for my companion and I.
The rules says “WILL OPERATE WITH A MINIMUM OF FOUR PASSENGERS ON ANY AIRSTRIP, IF LESS THAN FOUR PAX BOOKED,EXTRA SEATS WILL BE CHARGEDWell, sure enough I got an email last week (2 weeks before flight) telling me we were the only people booked and “options would be coming.”
A few convoluted emails later, we are nowhere, but they say they will get back to us 4 days before the flight.
My position now is that I just want a full refund so I can book an alternate flight that is confirmed. Once I asked for that, they suddenly stopped responding to my emails.
I would very much like to get this in order as the alternate flights are filling up.
does anyone know how this works?
I really don’t like the idea of an automatic charge for extra seats that we are not flying (at what fare? When do they charge them?) and as such I have put a freeze on my cc.
any insights?
Oct 20, 2023, 11:17 am
#2
Join Date: Jun 2016
Location: DAR / CDG
Programs: A3 Gold; FB Gold; Hertz Gold
Posts: 54
Living in East Africa and travelling around to many rural locations for work, on such routes that require "inducement" should they sell fewer seats than the stated minimum, I've normally been charged whatever the fare is that I had already paid for my own "real" ticket on the flight for each "virtual" additional ticket, minus any airport taxes (such as security fees, facility usage fees, etc.) since obviously there are no further actual human passengers in such cases.
This has been the case with Air Kenya, but also Auric in Tanzania and many other such carriers.
In terms of timing, typically the additional charge has gone through on the CC on the day of the actual flight, when they've truly confirmed that no further tickets will be sold to real passengers up to the minimum, and getting a proper receipt/invoice detailing the charges and their composition.
In terms of the "options" they mention, I will regularly get offered another flight on the same day of travel where they have already sold more tickets, or one to which were I added as a passenger, the inducement minimum would be met. In a sense, then, you can look at this as a sort of bundling/merging of the flights. Sometimes this will also include running a single flight as a milk-run on the day of, with passengers going to various destinations along a 2-4 stop route vs. running them as separate flights.
In terms of the inducement itself, this is a pretty typical business model in the region whereby you are essentially purchasing a ticket on a very thin route that operates a bit like a low volume charter flight, with the opportunity given to you to not pay for that charter if they manage to sell the other seats up to the minimum. It can indeed get pretty pricey, but typically the only alternatives are 1) ground travel, 2) Actually chartering a private plane, or 3) bringing a friend or two along ;-)
This has been the case with Air Kenya, but also Auric in Tanzania and many other such carriers.
In terms of timing, typically the additional charge has gone through on the CC on the day of the actual flight, when they've truly confirmed that no further tickets will be sold to real passengers up to the minimum, and getting a proper receipt/invoice detailing the charges and their composition.
In terms of the "options" they mention, I will regularly get offered another flight on the same day of travel where they have already sold more tickets, or one to which were I added as a passenger, the inducement minimum would be met. In a sense, then, you can look at this as a sort of bundling/merging of the flights. Sometimes this will also include running a single flight as a milk-run on the day of, with passengers going to various destinations along a 2-4 stop route vs. running them as separate flights.
In terms of the inducement itself, this is a pretty typical business model in the region whereby you are essentially purchasing a ticket on a very thin route that operates a bit like a low volume charter flight, with the opportunity given to you to not pay for that charter if they manage to sell the other seats up to the minimum. It can indeed get pretty pricey, but typically the only alternatives are 1) ground travel, 2) Actually chartering a private plane, or 3) bringing a friend or two along ;-)
Oct 23, 2023, 11:19 pm
#3
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2013
Posts: 637
Thanks so much, this was super helpful. I’ll describe below what happened to me for future FTers:
I called Air Kenya and she said it’s better to email. I told her I emailed 3 days ago with no response and, as promised, she did respond to the email within 5 minutes.
this is all about 7 days out from the scheduled Mara-EBB flight.
they told me my options were:
- full refund less 5% for bank fees
- buy 2 additional seats to guarantee the flight
- apply credit towards another Air Kenya flight and receive a refund less 5%
I chose option 3 (air Kenya to Wilson, then a new ticket onwards NBO-EBB).
This is actually better for me 1.) allows us to store our hard-sided carry ons at Wilson and 2.) later departure so we get a couple game drives in on day of departure.
so as long as we make the Wilson-NBO connection and the refund comes through, all ended well!
I called Air Kenya and she said it’s better to email. I told her I emailed 3 days ago with no response and, as promised, she did respond to the email within 5 minutes.
this is all about 7 days out from the scheduled Mara-EBB flight.
they told me my options were:
- full refund less 5% for bank fees
- buy 2 additional seats to guarantee the flight
- apply credit towards another Air Kenya flight and receive a refund less 5%
I chose option 3 (air Kenya to Wilson, then a new ticket onwards NBO-EBB).
This is actually better for me 1.) allows us to store our hard-sided carry ons at Wilson and 2.) later departure so we get a couple game drives in on day of departure.
so as long as we make the Wilson-NBO connection and the refund comes through, all ended well!
Oct 24, 2023, 8:22 am
#4
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: ORD
Programs: AA, UA, GE
Posts: 5,125
Living in East Africa and travelling around to many rural locations for work, on such routes that require "inducement" should they sell fewer seats than the stated minimum, I've normally been charged whatever the fare is that I had already paid for my own "real" ticket on the flight for each "virtual" additional ticket, minus any airport taxes (such as security fees, facility usage fees, etc.) since obviously there are no further actual human passengers in such cases.
This has been the case with Air Kenya, but also Auric in Tanzania and many other such carriers.
In terms of timing, typically the additional charge has gone through on the CC on the day of the actual flight, when they've truly confirmed that no further tickets will be sold to real passengers up to the minimum, and getting a proper receipt/invoice detailing the charges and their composition.
In terms of the "options" they mention, I will regularly get offered another flight on the same day of travel where they have already sold more tickets, or one to which were I added as a passenger, the inducement minimum would be met. In a sense, then, you can look at this as a sort of bundling/merging of the flights. Sometimes this will also include running a single flight as a milk-run on the day of, with passengers going to various destinations along a 2-4 stop route vs. running them as separate flights.
In terms of the inducement itself, this is a pretty typical business model in the region whereby you are essentially purchasing a ticket on a very thin route that operates a bit like a low volume charter flight, with the opportunity given to you to not pay for that charter if they manage to sell the other seats up to the minimum. It can indeed get pretty pricey, but typically the only alternatives are 1) ground travel, 2) Actually chartering a private plane, or 3) bringing a friend or two along ;-)
This has been the case with Air Kenya, but also Auric in Tanzania and many other such carriers.
In terms of timing, typically the additional charge has gone through on the CC on the day of the actual flight, when they've truly confirmed that no further tickets will be sold to real passengers up to the minimum, and getting a proper receipt/invoice detailing the charges and their composition.
In terms of the "options" they mention, I will regularly get offered another flight on the same day of travel where they have already sold more tickets, or one to which were I added as a passenger, the inducement minimum would be met. In a sense, then, you can look at this as a sort of bundling/merging of the flights. Sometimes this will also include running a single flight as a milk-run on the day of, with passengers going to various destinations along a 2-4 stop route vs. running them as separate flights.
In terms of the inducement itself, this is a pretty typical business model in the region whereby you are essentially purchasing a ticket on a very thin route that operates a bit like a low volume charter flight, with the opportunity given to you to not pay for that charter if they manage to sell the other seats up to the minimum. It can indeed get pretty pricey, but typically the only alternatives are 1) ground travel, 2) Actually chartering a private plane, or 3) bringing a friend or two along ;-)
We are booking this through one of the safari booking places. I would really like to book either ET or QR departing JRO on the evening of our flight form SEU to JRO. The current SEU-JRO flight is scheduled to arrive at around 12:30. ET departs at 17:20 and QR departs at 18:00. Do you think this too aggressive? I can easily book the next day as well and then try to figure out what we will do the in the JRO/Arusha area for a day.